As part of its employee wellbeing programme, office space provider Office Genie has started offering in-house eye tests, with two local opticians setting up shop in the organisation’s meeting room.
Sarah Sutton, head of people development, says: “Working online, we spend most of our day staring at a computer screen so it makes sense to take employee eye care seriously and also to make it as easy as possible to get any problems sorted.
“Any prescriptions that needed ordering were sorted in office. We would previously, and still do, reimburse the cost of independent, external eye tests and we offer this on an annual basis. We also cover the cost of new glasses, provided they are a reasonable price.”
Of the 30 employees who were offered the first in-house eye test in March 2016, 15 took advantage of the eye test, and three ended up ordering glasses.
Office Genie paid slightly more than the average cost for an eye test at high street providers such as Boots or Specsavers, explains Sutton. “We offered the eye tests on an optional basis, [because] not everyone feels comfortable having their health analysed in their working environment. However, the eye tests took place individually in a private meeting room and results were confidential between employee and optician.
“The feedback from staff was generally favourable, I think the ease of it more than anything: the fact it took place within working hours, in the workplace, and there wasn’t the need to claim an expense. We plan to have them every 18 months and we are currently organising our next one.”